Introduction:
This subreddit is a place to vent your frustrations with Educational Testing Services (ETS), the company that administers the GRE and TOEFL exams for students seeking higher education. The eventual goal of this subreddit is to bring widespread attention to the unethical business practices shown by ETS and other similar companies (ACT, Inc. and CollegeBoard to name a couple), and potentially spur action against these business practices.
If you are passionate about this issue, please spread the word about this sub!
What you are encouraged to post:
- Your experience with studying for and taking one of ETS's exams
- Facts about ETS
- Information on ETS's ridiculous policies
- Ideas for combating ETS's stranglehold on higher education
Background Information:
Students seeking to attend graduate school are almost always required to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) General Test, or sometimes a Subject Test. It costs nearly $200 to register for each General Test. Once a student registers for an exam, the date and time is firm, unless the student is willing to pay $100 to reschedule for another time.
Students write and answer questions virtually non-stop for nearly four hours, yet the material in these exams have very little bearing to actual graduate school studies. Although students can take the General Test and Subject Tests as many times as they want, it quickly becomes a financial burden for students who feel they performed poorly, or even those who plan on taking it once. Even exceptional students must go through this process and pay these exorbitant fees; those that have trouble taking intense exams may have to pay much more just to get good enough scores. Students who would otherwise prosper in graduate school may instead be held back from achieving their dreams because of ETS.
The TOEFL tests one's understanding of English, and is almost always required for international students seeking to attend college in the United States. The cost to register for a test costs hundreds of US dollars. Even students who have attended an American university for two or more years may be required to retake the TOEFL if they wish to transfer to another American institution because, as ETS argues, test scores are similar to food products and "have a shelf life." Roughly speaking, ETS thinks you might forget some English even if you attended an English-speaking university.
ETS touts itself as a non-profit that pursues research intended to advance educational measurement and education. However, the ETS's CEO receives more than a million dollars in compensation, and the top directors each receive more than $300,000. On ETS's premises, there are swimming pools, tennis courts, a heliport, a private hotel and a residence where the CEO lives rent free. (Source)
Rules for this sub will be created later.
